UK post 16 education providers are at risk of failing to sufficiently match courses to today's job market by relying on out of date labour market information, Active Informatics is today warning.

The warning comes as Active announces it has partnered with Burning Glass Technologies, whose intuitive technology is providing community colleges across the US with real time labour market intelligence to inform and support their curriculum decisions, connecting them to national and local labour market needs, by using web information collated from CVs and job vacancies on a daily basis.

The partnership will bring this technology, combined with the ability to analyse the job market and match it with occupational skills, to the UK market for the first time meaning that post 16 training providers in the UK will have the ability to match their courses to real time market intelligence.

Steve Ainsworth, CEO of Active Informatics, says, "Evidence suggests a growing mismatch between worker capabilities and employer needs. Unless addressed, this gap will impair the economic health of the nation and its workforce. In a dynamic economic environment, where technology innovation is redefining the nature of work, educators need access to current, accurate and detailed data to make informed choices about career paths and training programs. At present, however, they do not have access to the right labour market signals."

"For example, post 16 education providers in the UK continue to rely upon mostly historic data when deciding what skills are required to increase the employability of students. The problem with this intelligence is that it can be years out of date, and so does not accurately reflect today's market. Our US counterparts have already realised the benefits that can be gained from up to date information, and it is time that we followed suit."

"Our partnership with Burning Glass Technologies will bring real time labour information to the UK, enabling a true representation of the vacancies available and the skills breakdown of occupations. This will enable colleges to shape their curriculums so that students can be equipped with the skills needed to fill the gaps available."

"This is particularly important given the changing skills required for jobs that are available today that perhaps weren't just a few years ago. For example, the development of wind farms and other "green technologies" has created new types of skill requirements."

Michael Cox, Director of Enterprise Sales and Solutions at Burning Glass Technologies, says, "A person's employability is dependent on their skills set, and so it is imperative that the skills students are equipped with are relevant to the job market, otherwise unemployment levels will be fuelled."

"The only way this is achievable is through focusing on current requirements, rather than the skills that were needed five years ago. We have already seen the benefits this has brought to the US market, and look forward to seeing the same success in the UK."

About Active Informatics

Active Informatics provides powerful but easy to use software applications for education and emergency services organisations to make informed strategic and operational decisions based on evidential and real-time data. Active's applications bring static information to life to enable data analysis, presentation and communication. This in turn facilitates effective and efficient public service delivery by increasing revenues, managing costs and improving business performance.

About Burning Glass Technologies

Burning Glass analytical tools are playing a growing role in informing the global debate on education and the workforce by providing researchers, policy makers, educators, and employers with detailed real-time awareness into skill gaps and labour market demand. Burning Glass's job seeker tools power several government workforce systems and have been shown to have substantive impact on reemployment outcomes and on labour market literacy. Through in-depth analysis of both individual skills and experience as well as of the real-time jobs market, its unique platform delivers both actionable labour market intelligence as well as highly personalized job referrals, career path mapping, and recruitment tools. Their patented artificial intelligence engine learns from actual career patterns as mined from both structured and natural language contexts in order to deliver an intuitive, real-time awareness of how and when people move from job to job and of the kinds of skills and experiences that lead to successful placement.

With headquarters in Boston's historic Faneuil Hall, Burning Glass is proud to serve a client base that spans six continents, including government workforce agencies, education institutions, academic research centres, global recruitment and staffing agencies, major employers, and leading job boards.